Article 13922 of alt.cyberpunk:
Xref: ifi.uio.no alt.cyberpunk:13922 rec.arts.books:51355
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,rec.arts.books
Path: ifi.uio.no!nuug!aun.uninett.no!sunic!uunet!gatekeeper.us.oracle.com!sgiblab!octela!shaun
From: shaun@octel.com (Foo Loops)
Subject: REVIEW: Cigarette Boy by Darick Chamberlin
Message-ID: <1993Mar18.081425.7464@octel.com>
Organization: Octel Communications Inc., Milpitas Ca.
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 08:14:25 GMT
Lines: 188

Archive-name: cigboy.rvw

[I crossposted a copy of this to rec.arts.sf.reviews, and it seems
that the whole thing was mailed off to the moderator and not posted.
My apologies if you see this twice.  
						-- @Man ]



: GAMES WHERE DEAD STRANGERS WERE STRIPPED AND SMEARED WITH SYNTHETIC
HONEY  ON THE MOUTH  SO THAT THEY WOULD SAY NOTHING BUT  SWEET THINGS
IN THE OTHER WORLD ABOUT MEMBERS OF THE LOCAL SCENE :

                                               - From _Cigarette Boy_


Review: _CIGARETTE BOY: A MOCK MACHINE MOCK-EPIC_ by Darick Chamberlin


                                 START


So begins the "mock-epic" _Cigarette Boy_.


        START SOLOPRINT `E-CODE' FUGITIVE AUTOSCHEMATIC OF
        X-STATION  PROTONOVEL  OUTLINING  "C"  :  [RECRUIT
        NUMANGA COPYCAT SKIM SACCADES  :  ACOLLIDE  I.D.C.
        AUTOSCHEMA  VIA  ELEVENTH HOUR REBEL IONS : IGNITE
        OVERCLEVER  COPYCAT  PHAROAH  SCANS IN  "CIGARETTE
        BOY" SEQUENCE CUTS VIA DYMOSAURICK RE-EXPLODERS] :


So it continues.  So it goes on for 84 pages.  It is one long 100%
uppercase, right-and-left-justified, stream-of-machine-consciousness
textual dump.  No, that's not really fair.  It is, however, how it
appears on the surface.  The most obvious thing about _Cigarette Boy_ is
definitely its layout, and, to some extent, the presentation of the
material matches the approach to the content: nearly impervious.  Now,
that's not to say that the content is impossible to decipher, nor worth
the effort; it's simply woven in a complex fabric that approaches the
human-unreadable.  At one point I considered writing a program that
would parse the text and reformat it into something easier to read, but
the task of typing in the entire text was too daunting.  I still think
it would be possible, however, because the text, while about as
forgiving as a jet-black obelisk, is arranged in a way that makes it
susceptible to machine processing.  In fact, the entire text is supposed
to be machine-generated, or at least gives that impression.  Mixed-media
cues nested in square brackets are mixed with images, background
information, and indexing commands that give the impression that if you
fed the "novella" into the right piece of equipment with access to the
right libraries of audio and video footage, it would sit silently for a
while, then emit a sonorous "bing" when it had digitally assembled the
requested pieces into a "movie" or whatever term mixed-media interactive
artwork eventually gets tagged with.  Example:


        7:30..."  :  [AUDIOTRACK ENHANCEMENT : RE-TRACK
        EXCERPT LINE FROM THE MESA DELATA FILE: CARBON-
        INDUCE INTERLAMINATE  NUCLEOTRACKS ] : [ RESUME
        SCAN]  :  [ IMPLY  THE  DELIBERATELY ENGINEERED
        SIXTEENER  CRUSADE  COPY ON CHARIOT GLACIATIONS
        VIA FOSSIL THEORIES  LISTED TO DATE BY  VARIOUS
        AUTHORS  :


The end result of this methode du presentacion (to use a bogus Frenchism
for no good reason) is that _Cigarette Boy_ demands far more effort on
the part of the reader than most works of prose.  In addition to
demanding that the reader keep track of which level of nesting the
current passage is in, and parsing lots of weird new terms (like
"ACOLLIDER," "PARAWELD," and "SURGIRAFFE,") multiple thematic elements
including Egyptian imagery and genetic, temporal, and wafer-level
engineering, the reader is encouraged (some might say required) to
produce sophisticated mixed-media mental imagery in order to follow the
story. On top of all this there is a regular and heavy layer of
transformational word-play adding a shiny metallic thread to the fabric
of the piece.  Puns, spelling twists, even limericks surface, snap, and
submerge in the midst of the contorted plot and the media directions.


                      :  EVERYONE  WHO  KNEW  THE  FOSSIL
        FOURTH   MASTER  KNEW  THE  FLOWER  GIRL  :  BLUE
        BEGONIA  GIRL  : ANTOINETTE  CODE  GIRL : LUNAR 5
        SUFFICIENT "SAVE" GIRL : [BAROQUE FLECK SOCIALIST
        APRICODE BEE PERFUME CORAL GIRL] :


and


                     : THEY CUT AN ELEGANT MOON MANOUEVRE
        BUT IN VAIN : NOON VAIN : [NOTE VAIN ORE]


What all this meant is that this 84 page book took me three weeks to
read.  Often I would read four or five pages carefully, still get lost,
reread part of what I had just finished, and end up either staring out
the window pondering the material or feeling extremely tired from the
effort. For some reason the style never became transparent to me, and I
had to expend enormous mental effort to make substantial progress. It
felt like reading the Canterbury Tales without glossing and without the
reassuring pull of iambic pentameter to draw one onward.  At two or
three places, after lengthy squares of nearly incomprehensible machine
commands I almost gave up.  However, each time, without fail, I found
soon afterward an exquisitely crafted image (like the one mentioned at
the top of this review) that would give me pause, and gave me reason to
continue.  In case you've forgotten the abovementioned image, here it is
again:


           : GAMES WHERE DEAD STRANGERS WERE STRIPPED AND
        SMEARED WITH SYNTHETIC HONEY ON THE MOUTH SO THAT
        THEY  WOULD  SAY NOTHING  BUT SWEET THINGS IN THE
        OTHER WORLD ABOUT MEMBERS OF THE LOCAL SCENE :


There are many other are equally poetic images buried in the mass of
text that makes up _Cigarette Boy_.

The plot didn't become anywhere near clear to me until I was about
80% of the way through the book.  I'm still not sure exactly what is
going on.  There is some kind of warfare-oriented genetic engineering
occuring, and temporal manipulation; spaceships fight, and battles are
played out; there are hints of rebellion against corporate interests,
and betrayal, but the storyline's progress was lost for me, distorted
beneath the high-pressure blanket of the author's style.  Was it worth
reading?  To be honest, I'm not sure.  I think so.  As an amateur
writer, it was useful as an extreme experimental position from which I
can retreat to something I consider useful; as I reader, again, yes, I
think so.  The guts (which in this case I suspect are electromechanical)
are there to be probed, analyzed, and understood.  I can feel the story,
which is intertwined with the presentation, trying to touch me.
Unfortunately, this book requires more than one reading, a trait it
shares with all fine literature.  Whether it actually _is_ a piece of
fine literature (in the sense of being able to provide a rich, diverse
set of internally coherent interpretations,) remains to be seen.  I
suspect it can indeed support a host of interpretations, but I have the
uneasy feeling that there are a lot of subtleties and details I am
missing, having read it only once.  It is going to be a while before I
tackle it again, however; for my tastes, the style is really thick, and
slightly irritating.  Prose is, at its heart, a human communication
form, and the style of _Cigarette Boy_ comes dangerously close to
crossing the line into unintelligibility.  Although _CB_ is supposed to
be written by a machine, it is ultimately intended for human consumption
(for you and I, the real-world readers,) and that fact requires some
concessions if it is to be read cover to cover instead of paged through
like a coffee-table book.  One choice that would tip the balance in
favor of readability without compromising the story's integrity would be
the use of lower case. Today, there is no good reason for computers to
produce English text in all uppercase.  It doesn't even look "computery"
or futuristic anymore; instead, it makes one think that the text was
either generated by a completely obsolete computer, or by someone who is
new to textual telecommunications and doesn't realize that when they
speak in all caps, THEY ARE YELLING THEIR FUCKING HEAD OFF.  One would
think that a computer sophisticated enough to generate this kind of
story would have a caps lock bit under software control.  :^)  Yeah,
it's a nit, but it's a large one--about as big as nits get, I reckon.
Fortunately, the font is almost sans-serif and about as close to
readable as possible for all-caps once you get used to it.

I don't give numerical ratings, because I think they are worthless, and
the idea of expressing months or years of effort in 4 bits is silly, so
I'm not going to give this X stars, or a laughing hyena with a split
side, or a pulsating amoeba shaped into a meaningful symbol.  If you
want a second opinion, you can read Paul Di Filippo's review in _Science
Fiction Eye_ #11.  He was able to piece together more of the plot than I
was, by the way.   _Cigarette Boy_ is not available in stores--if you
are interested in purchasing a copy, you'll have to order it directly
from the author for US $15, including postage and handling.  The author
can be reached at the following address:

Darick Chamberlin
1562 E. Olive Way #402
Seattle, WA 98102
USA

"Review of _Cigarette Boy_" written by @Man <atman@ecst.csuchico.edu>
17 March 1993.  This review is in the public domain: no restrictions on
use or distribution.  Please contact me if you use it for anything.

-- @tticus Maximus

-- 
shaun@octel.com  ||  Greyhound: when you absolutely, positively don't care
                     whether you get there or not.

If it's good enough for puppies, it's good enough for Carruthers.






